Air Quality sensor autopsy

Actually, it’s a bit unfair to call it an autopsy, what with the sensor not being dead. I applied some power and it sprang into life, producing readings that seemed quite sensible. The components that had suffered the most were the four screws that held the lid on. I thought these were galvanised steel, but they are now very rusty steel, to the point where one screw head has pretty much disappeared.

However, once I got the lid off I discovered that the internals look pretty much like new. There is a bit of burn-in on the OLED screen (you can see it on the top right hand corner) but everything else looks fine. The waterproof case has done a good job of protecting the innards. The air quality sensor is only turned on a few times each hour to take readings, and it worked fine giving reasonable readings.

This is the air inlet. I was expecting to see more blockage than this. The filter we used was an inlet filter for a washing machine hose which we glued into place, and it seems to have done a good job of keeping out creepy crawlies. The next thing might be to take the air quality sensor to pieces and take a look at the state inside that. The sensor fan sounds fine, so it might be good for a while longer. From this assessment it looks like we can build things, stick them on lampposts and have them survive for a useful amount of time.